Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Are You Brave?

I am very fortunate to be among a group of organizations that host Leadercast each year. This is a Full Day LIVE Simulcast event that creates a great opportunity for leaders to connect, meet, grow and learn from each other. The team at Leadercast does an awesome job at focusing the subject matter from well-known (and loved!) speakers to a single theme that resonates around the world.

Oddly enough, with 2014 being my 'Year of the Brave', our theme for Leadercast 2015 is 'The Brave Ones'. Working on developing my plan for this event in May next year, I have read some of the books by the authors that are speaking and really started to look at my own community through a new lens - the one of this theme.

Bravery is about possessing a posture of unrelenting boldness.

an essential behaviour for any leader is the act of bravery. Bravery is not a moniker that can be bought...it cannot be self-appointed. Bravery is not attributed to everyone, but is reserved for those whose innovation in their industry cause them to stand out from the crowd, whose unyielding effort and error push their organizations into new territories, and whose boldness compels them to stand up for those less fortunate. These are the Brave Ones. (from Leadercast 2015)

Looking at the world through this lens has allowed me to open up my own view to bravery and who has fulfilled that action in the past. In my immediate family I can attribute this to my Dad - an Italian immigrant who came to Canada to start a new life for himself and his parents without any knowledge of the language or where he would settle; to my sons - both who found the courage to take steps to control their own lives at very young ages (15 & 11) and make choices that were against the grain. My husband, who figured out his passion and stuck to it to become well-known in his field (without a post-secondary education) and is now focusing on others he can help find their way with education and focus.

Do those examples fit the description above completely? Perhaps not. Others have done similar things I am sure. To me though, those acts were/are life-changing and set the tone for them to continue to make bold decisions and stand out from the crowd because of what they have accomplished so far.